Saving the Day
by Zerodius
Summary: In 1988, Chemical X came to Earth. In 2008, Professor Utonium created the first Powerpuff Girls. Now, fifty years later, Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup must unravel old secrets and discover how the day was saved, as villains long thought defeated start to resurface.
1. Day to be saved: Succession

**OFF:** This story... it's been a long time in the making. Notably, I begun working on it when the Powerpuff Girls original show aired. But back then, I decided for various reasons to shelve it.

Until now.

Though I really don't like the 2016 reboot, it did inspire me to produce this. This is an AU, effectively a retelling of the entire setting with some differences. Though the original show is the main basis behind it, elements from the PPGZ anime and 2016 reboot might show up from time to time (though rewriten and adjusted).

This AU will feature two interlocked storylines: The Day to be Saved and The Day that was Saved, taking place 50 years from one another.

Note that though I do have a set idea of where I am going with this, questions and comments are welcome. In particular, some equivalents to canon events will be taking place in this AU and as such, input is more than welcome regarding those events.

I hope you will all enjoy this!

* * *

 **The Day to be Saved**

 _Prologue ~ Succession_

* * *

The city of Townsville, America.

A sprawling metropolis, one of the greatest cities on the planet. A massive hub filled with productive people busy bringing hope and civilization to this world.

Of course, as with any city, it is not all rainbows and lollypops. And as such, criminals and enemies of humanity stalk its streets, looking for victims. But thanks to the Powerpuff Girls, the city is kept safe and the attacks of the mutants, thwarted thus saving the day!

"So where's that monkey! He can't be far from here!" A black-haired girl, clad in green and with enormous glowing eyes of a matching color, said, flying quickly, leaving a colored trail behind.

"The officers said that the Simian was in the area. Keep looking, girls!" said the one at the front of the formation, a pink-eyed girl with matching outfit, her long orange hair kept in place with a heart clip and a red hairbow.

"I hope we're not too late. It would be so sad if he had time to harm anyone..." Bringing up the rear was a blonde in a blue outfit, same style as the other two.

"There! I see him!"

In one of the alleys by the edges of the city, the three girls dropped from the skies and landed behind their foe. The pink-clad one stepped forward, pointing her strangely shaped hand at him and calling out.

"Not so fast!"

The figure was a strangely clothed one. Like all Simians, it had an inflated brain that burst out of its skull, housed within a protective casing. The casing was oddly ornate, of a white and purple color. A long, purple cape was attached to its shoulders, the faint wind blowing into it. Hints of a dark blue suit could be seen, the hairy arms muscular and massive. The figure wasn't exactly impressive, being merely double the size of the three.

The figure slowly turned around, revealing itself to be a green-skinned chimp with red eyes. His stare was cold and fearless as he looked over the three calmly. A point that was unnerving the green girl to say the least.

"I almost expected you two to follow this up with my name." His voice was a low-pitched, slightly asian-like voice.

"What, you think we should remember the name of some run-of-the-mill Simian?" mocked the green one.

The Simian's eyes narrowed and slowly, he grinned. The pink-eyed and blue-eyed ones couldn't help but feel that his teeth looked a bit too pointy, a bit too sharp to be normal. There was something deeply, deeply off. How come this Simian was so darn calm?

"You truly have no idea who you are dealing with, don't you?" The chimp said slowly, not budging from his position.

"Ha! Whatever machine you have, we'll smash!" The green one boasted.

"Yeah! We're Powerpuff Girls! You'll never beat us!" went the pink one.

The chimp's grin grew wider. "You are out of your league, overmatched. You are far too inexperienced, far too weak to even dare to hope to challenge me. Go home little girls. Do not make me destroy you."

"You don't scare us, mister bad guy!" the blue girl said.

"Yeah! Bring it!" went the green one.

The caped Simian remained silent for a brief moment and then, straightened himself, relaxing. "You wish to fight me? Alright. Let's play." He then reached to his belt and pulled out something from under his cape. The girls tensed for a fight, expecting him to take out a remote to call in a combat machine... only for him to pull out a common disintegrator ray pistol?

"What? Are you serious? We've beaten hundreds of Simians wielding weapons far deadlier than this small toy you got! Get real!" mocked the green one.

"Oh believe me, that is all that I will need to eliminate small fries such as you."

This looked too easy. Either this Simian is completely mad or this is some kind of trap. It can't be this simple. However, to the pink-eyed girl's dismay, her sister answered the taunt and charged straight toward the chimp, leaving a green trail as she charged.

She brought her arm back for a power punch and then thrusted it forward, intending on smashing that Simian's face. Once for the Simian to reach with his free hand. What was he hoping to achieve? Powerpuff Girls were far superior to Simians in terms of physical strength, by a margin that was calculated with a lot of digits!

What she did not count upon was that her foe apparently knew physics, and martial arts, well enough to redirect the direction of her arm, angling it upward. Then, as his hand grasped hers, he pressed down. Though his strength was far lesser than hers, her inertia and momentum worked together and caused all of the strength she had concentrated into her punch to be redirected into her elbow, cracking it.

Powerpuff Girl healing factor was basically miraculous, allowing her to survive strikes that would reduce most life-forms to what could best be described as chunky salsa. As such, the sudden shattering of her elbow was a minor injury, an annoyance at best. Or so it would have been if the Simian hadn't immediately followed by thrusting her now broken arm against her chest violently. This time, her bones shattered audibly as he completely wrecked her forearm and dislocated her shoulder.

The remaining kinetic energy of the shove caused her to fall backward, screaming in agony and shock.

"BUTTERCUP!" The pink-eyed one reacted on instinct.

She charged to intercept the Simian even as he finished shoving her down. She didn't know how a mere Simian had managed to inflict a genuine injury upon a creature that could usually tank a missile to the face and barely flinch but right now, her thoughts had been vented as she sprung to the defense of her sister.

Just as she brought her fist toward the helmet of the Simian, he finished his motion... thus bringing his pistol to bear against her. She felt it press against her chest and for a moment, time seemed to stop as she heard the ominous click of him pulling the trigger.

Disintegrator rays had immense destructive power but usually were not much threat to the Powerpuff Girls. Their skin was a complex mesh of plastic and augmented bio matter that could stand up to the most extreme of pressures, heat levels, and acids and barely get a scratch. However, this applied to their skin. The same couldn't be said of the fragile vital organs inside their bodies. And while a mere disintegrator ray shouldn't be normally able to significantly harm a Powerpuff Girl... a point blank blast had the properties of completing bypassing their super tough skin.

A spray of dark red, almost black viscera shot out of her back as the disintegrator ray vaporized her heart, three-thirds of her right lung, and severed her spine. Suddenly paralyzed and lethally wounded, the pink-eyed girl dropped to the ground with a heavy thud. Weakened by death, her fist inneffectually fell by the side, missing the Simian's helmet and face altogether. Eyes wide open, the mortally wounded Powerpuff Girl tried to speak, only for gurgling to escape her throat as her eyes fluttered, her entire body shaking from shock as she emptied herself of the precious chemical X that made up her lifeblood.

"Bl-Blossom!" Buttercup found herself wide-eyed, suddenly forgetting her pain.

Pain which turned to rage as she turned to face the Simian and-

click!

The point blank blast outright vaporized Buttercup's lower jaw and reduced her brains to confetti, which splattered all over the wall, painting it black. She collapsed like a puppet whose strings had just been cut, not even managing to utter a single word or sigh as death instantly took her, what's left of her half-boiled eyeballs rolling out of their orbits.

His disintegrator ray pistol smoking, the Simian slowly walked to the blue-clad girls, smirking confidently. The encounter had taken mere seconds, too fast for any of the girls to really react. As the chimp approached her, a mix of despair, grief, and terror gripped her heart and she found herself collapsing on her knees, overwhelmed and starting to sob. There wasn't even cold satisfaction on her sisters' murderer's face.

"Before you thought of challenging me, it would have been a smart idea for you to remember your history lessons, to remember who that you are daring to think of trying to defeat. You would have realized the foolishness of your actions and the hopeless situation that is your own. For you see, I think that now that I have utterly demonstrated my superiority, you pathetic Powerpuff Girls shall now remember my name."

"M-Mojo Jojo. You're... Mojo Jojo."

"The one and only."

The blue-eyed girl stared at him with growing horror. "Im-impossible! Blossom, Buttercup, and Bubbles Utonium killed you fifty years ago! You died in the destruction of the Observatory! They even found your body!"

"Reports of my death were... greatly exaggerated." He was now right in front of her, smirking. "You know you cannot hope to defeat me. As I said, you were overmatched. Too inexperienced, your technique too crude. Outsmarting you lot was easy."

Bubbles 117 hyperventilated. She quickly surveyed the area, trying to think of an escape route. She looked to her foe, thinking of ways she could defeat him. But then, she looked at the corpses of her sisters and remembered who she was facing...

"You wish to ask I, the great Mojo Jojo, anything?" his voice was mocking now, cold and mocking.

She was sobbing by now. She could barely bring herself to speak. "Ju-just make it quick please..."

"I will honor that request."

As she felt the disintegrator ray's barrel against her forehead, despite the sheer hysteria of sorrow, trauma, and terror that was shaking her entire body, a strange sense of calmness came to her. It was so absurd. Less than a minute ago, she and her sisters had traded jokes and made plans about what they would do this weekend after school, in particular regarding the big party they were planning to have in honor of the new girls.

Yes, rationally she and all her sisters knew that their lives as Powerpuff Girls were dangerous ones, likely to end any day and in an extremely horrible manner. But she had never really thought that when she and her sisters took off from their house to fight crime today, it would be their last.

Any further thoughts were removed from her skull alongside her brains as the disintegrator instantly killed her, her body tipping over and shaking as the chemical X in her twitching, trembling body poured out of the now gaping hole in the back of her head.

Mojo Jojo surveyed his handiwork for a second and then grabbed his cape, throwing it back into position as he turned around and resumed his walk. As he walked out of the alley, he checked the time on his watch. Excellent. The delay they caused is utterly insignificant, it did not cause any loss of time and it will not force him to have to revise his plans because they might no longer be possible under the schedule he has already set up prior to this distraction which was not the goal of his presence here. Good. Now that this pathetic little interruption is done with, it is time to attend to actually important matters that don't involve run-of-the-mill girls that he don't care for and have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with his latest plan.

* * *

"Blossom, Buttercup, Bubbles. It is the duty of Powerpuff Girls to save the day. Ever since the great war, our kind has given the world a future, one day at a time. As with our predecessors, we have watched over Townsville from the Utonium Chateau, our ancestral home, keeping it safe from X-born monsters and criminals. However, to be a Powerpuff Girl is danger and though we had a lot of fun together, we always knew that there a possibility that every day we ventured to safeguard the city, that this day would be our last."

"I want you girls to be brave despite what has happened for I know, if you are listening to this message, that I and my sisters ran into something we couldn't handle and as such, are now dead. The chateau and our duties are therefore, by our last will, yours. All of my books go to you, Blossom. I also entrust you with the basement's science equipment. I've kept notes if you're interested in following up on any of my projects."

The recorder's voice changed to one that sounded identical to Bubbles'.

"Since if you listen to this message, I'm dead too, all of my toys will go to Bubbles. I'm leaving you the responsibility of watching over Octi. Please take good care of him. He belonged to Bubbles Utonium herself back when she was alive and he has given from Bubbles to Bubbles through generations. He was always my friend and the toy I loved most, supporting me in my darker moments as he did our ancestor. Please take care of him and give him lots and lots of love. He'll love you back, as he loved me and all those of our lines. I wish I could be always be there for you, too... but if you are listening to this, just know that I loved you as much as I loved my sisters."

The voice changed to one that was like Buttercup's.

"Buttercup 117. Look, Buttercup, I know you're probably burning with the need to kick the butt of whoever did me in but miss goody two-shoes and the blue crybaby-" A loud 'Hey!' was heard from Bubbles 117 in the recording. Buttercup 117 continued, ignoring the interruption. "-will probably object and frankly, listen to them. However, whoever kicked our butts will almost certainly be out of your league. You're still young and, well, your training's incomplete. So I'm leaving you my training equipment. Listen to your sisters and train hard. I'm not saying you shouldn't seek revenge. I want you to do that! But let's face it, whoever killed us will probably be something scary. So I want you to become even badder and scarier than whoever got us! Get him, or her, for us Buttercup! I know you can do it!"

The recorder's voice changed back to one identical to Blossom's. There was a short nervous giggle in the recording.

"You know... I'm not really sure how to continue this. I know I should probably tell you the details about all you'll inherit and what your duties will be but... it just feels strange. You know, just knowing that someday we might, actually, not save the day, that you'll actually hear this. I hope this recording won't be necessary, that we'll die of old age and get to tell you all this in person when you're ready to take over for us." There was another fit of giggling, this one slightly less awkward. "I mean, that would be great! I could just tell you sometime, when we're all with grey hair and locked up articulations, about how we recorded this big silly message in case a bad guy got the best out of us! And we'd all laugh about it and talk about how the idea of the Powerpuff Girls losing is, you know, kind of ridiculous!"

The voice became more serious and resigned.

"But... I am realistic. Most Powerpuff Girls don't make it to 3 years. Fewer still to 5. And only the best of the best, or rather the luckiest, get to 7 years. So... I will record this anyway."

There was a sigh.

"Beyond all we're leaving you and the information we gave you, the one thing I want you to know is that we loved you. That we don't care you never had numbers of your own or that your readings are a bit odd, even for Powerpuff Girls. You were sisters to us, all the same as every other girl."

"My final request, well, my two last requests are that you use the old hotline and contact the mayor, miss Bellum. She worked with us since the very beginning, having been the secretary of Townsville's original mayor back when the Utonium were watching over our world. She'll walk you through the steps to settle down in your responsibilities. Second, in the lab, I begun amassing the data records on the Utonium's lifetime. The great war was a time of great tragedy, with most of our world's history lost in the chaos. I dedicated my life, outside of saving the day, to rediscovering our kind's history. I'd like it if you could continue my work for me."

There was a pause.

"Well, I'm not sure what else to say." The voice became faint, as if Blossom 117 wasn't talking the microphone directly anymore. "What do you say girls?"

"I think we're good." Buttercup 117 replied.

Blossom 117 turned her focus back on the microphone, judging from the recorder's volume. "I'm sure you'll do fine. And girls? Don't cry for us. This isn't a farewell but a good-bye."

"We'll tell the professor and the Utonium hi for you!" went Bubbles 117 in the background.

"Yeah! And when you do follow us, make sure to take as many bad guys down with you as you can!" went Buttercup 117, audibly punching the air in the background.

"I hope we'll only see in many, many years. Save the day and live long lives for us. This was Blossom 117 Series YS-zeta 55."

"Bubbles 117 Series YS-zeta 55!"

"Buttercup Series YS-zeta 55."

"See you later girls!"

The recording ended. There was a moment of silence as the tape finished playing. With those last words, the finality of the situation registered fully and definitively. And while Bubbles was on the verge of tears, she managed to wipe the tears from her eyes and smile. Buttercup sat there for a moment, arms crossed before glancing to her sister as Blossom sighed. To be fair, she was more than aware that her blue-eyed sister's smile was a forced one. Ever since the funeral, they didn't have much of a reason to smile.

"Well, I guess that wraps it up." After Blossom said this, there was a very long and very noticeable moment of silence. Just the three of them, standing there, not saying anything. Eventually, there was a click and the tape recorder turned off on its own.

"Now what?" Buttercup voiced aloud the same question that Bubbles was wondering in her mind, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"Move our stuff to the outer bedroom. It's ours now."

"Why not move the hotline to our room?" asked the blue-eyed girl.

Blossom seriously considered it for a moment but... "The outer bedroom has three windows leading straight outside. Our current room don't have these. Beside, it's tradition."

As much as it felt wrong, it indeed was. She just couldn't reconcile her feelings. Even after the trip to the morgue to identify the bodies, even after the funeral, she still couldn't bring herself to accept that they were gone. Once she'd move into this room, it would become impossible to deny. Beside, though it was tradition, it just didn't feel like her room. Like, it wasn't her right to be here.

Still, it is tradition and that seemed to settle it, somewhat. Given their super strength and speed, moving their stuff to the other room was a matter of mere minutes. Before long, they had moved all of the stuff they would keep to their new room, leaving the previous bedroom just as it was before they moved in. Of course, moving the stuff was the easy part. It was moving the stuff of the previous girls that was less easy.

They couldn't keep everything. Stuff had to be moved and put into bags for giving to charity or other organizations. As Buttercup picked up one of her older sister's weights, she couldn't help but sigh. Though Buttercup 117 had not cared much for cleaning, she had kept her training equipment in perfect condition. She had truly cared about those pieces of equipment...

As they continued to move the stuff, memories surfacing with each object, Blossom walked up to the hotline phone. Even as technology progressed, the classic design had always been kept, though of course it now benefitted from the advantages of modern phones. The painted oval eyes, the painted smile, the red lamp that acted as a nose... once she pick up this phone, the transmission of duties will begin.

With a deep breath, her heart pounding inside her chest, she picked up the phone. After a short while, an old-sounding, motherly voice answered. "This is the mayor."

"Hello mayor?"

There was a short pause. "Are you and your sisters ready to pick up the mantle?"

She doesn't feel she is. "I am ready."

"Then listen carefully. I'll walk you through the steps."

The process turned out both a lot more complicated and a lot less so than expected ; It seemed that their late sisters had done the vast majority of the paperwork for them. That was so much like Blossom 117 to plan in advance for them. It warmed her heart and made her smile.

"Alright, we're done." Buttercup's voice cut in, Bubbles at her side. "You know, I still don't get why we need to do all this stuff." said the green-eyed girl. "They call us, we move in, we save the day. That's what we're born to do after all."

"Collateral." Blossom summed up. "Also, to get ourselves excused from class when there's trouble."

More silence from the green-eyed sister as she slowly walked up to the side of the room. She sighed and begun to shift and push the training equipment into position. Given her strength, the slow speed at which she pushed each set was not due to its weight. Bubbles looked at the ceiling, just staring at the bed. For a moment, she wondered how many trios of Powerpuff Girls had slept in this bed.

"Was our lack of a serial number a problem?" An innocent question from Bubbles but a pretty good one, now that she thought about it. Thankfully, it wasn't.

"Nah. Since we're the only ones without a number, the mayor agreed like our teacher to refer to us using our model names."

Buttercup had lost interest in the process ages ago. Unfortunately, she also ran out of things to do. Her mind wandered out of control, much to her dismay. At first, it wasn't too bad, just pondering who might have been the one to do their sisters in. She's at ease thinking of ways to punch the jerk who did them in into either jail or the next world. But as she thought of combat techniques, it drove her to think of things she didn't want to think about.

Such as if they were truly ready. To be fair, she really liked the idea of a good fight. To feel the adrenaline, the thrill, the tension. The idea of risking her life did scare her but it was a fear that was bittersweet and looked forward to.

She was not afraid of dying. That she knew. It was the way of life for Powerpuff Girls. But when she remembered the way that her older sisters had just laid down in those coffins, with their eyes empty, glassy, and unfocused, with their limbs in unnatural angles, gruesome, gaping holes piercing their bodies... It caused her to suddenly picture Blossom and Bubbles like that too, lying down on the broken pavement, their eyes empty and glassy, their chests a smoking crater.

This caused her heart to skip a beat, her throat to tie itself up into a knot. Her hands shook uncontrollably and she found the temptation to cry and sob try to get a hold of her. She was not afraid of dying... but seeing her older sisters as lifeless corpses? She had wanted to break into a fit of loud sobbing so badly. But as she saw and heard Bubbles cry her eyes out, as she saw her usually rational other sister just lose it and sob while whispering that it couldn't be... Buttercup knew she couldn't allow herself to cry. She couldn't allow herself to be weak. For the sake of her sisters. And because she knew that if she started, she would not have been able to stop.

She managed to push those thoughts away. She cried enough. Her older sisters loved her and well, if Buttercup 117 saw this, she'd call her a big baby. Blossom 117 probably would, too. Maybe even... no. Not Bubbles 117. She would have probably embarassed her instead.

Blossom hung up the phone. "It is done. It's official now, girls."

And with that said, came the time to just live what was left of today as normally as possible. To say it was awkward was an understatement. After so much time spent with their older sisters acting as makeshift parents, living on their own felt weird even after the many days they had to get over it. The house just felt so empty, so quiet. Seats felt too empty all the time. They just expected to find their older sisters taking care of the house, playing with their toys, cooking, experimenting, planning, doing all things expected of both girls looking like human children and from adults.

It was something many of the younger humans struggled to wrap their brains around. A Powerpuff Girl's speed was not just in movement, it was also in their thoughts and reflexes. They thought and felt faster than humans, by a massive margin. This was why they could learn so fast and why it took so little time for their kind to get over stuff.

Of course, it didn't change that it felt awkward, Blossom felt. Before, it had been their older sisters who did it. Now, she was the one who had to remind her sisters to get to bed, who had to set the alarm clock, who had to make sure everything was planned out for tomorrow.

After all, tomorrow the leave they got due to their older sisters' death would be over. And well, since tomorrow wasn t a weekend day, that meant school.

The next day came all too quickly. Blossom groaned as she woke from the alarm clock, both of her sisters doing so as well. It took all of her strength not to smash the stupid thing. For a moment, she didn't really think about it as she moved to get herself dressed. After all, she couldn't go to school in her nighties.

She initially was about to go for her usual dress when she saw the outfit that was at the front, just waiting for her, as if calling to her. At first, neither Bubbles or Buttercup seemed to understand but as they moved next to her and stared, they understood and froze as well.

The outfits were tight dresses made of a plastic-like, bulletproof, friction-resistant fabric coming with white undergarments and long leg stockings of a heat-resistant fabric, with steel alloy black shoes, and a black belt of a similar composite alloy to secure the outfits in place during motion. Each dress model matched each girl's eye color, with Blossom's outfit including a heart clip made of colored steel and a hairbow made of the same composite alloy as the main outfit to secure her long hair.

This was the traditional Powerpuff Girl outfit, worn both for its practicality in combat and as a symbol of one's status and identity as Powerpuff Girls. Blossom 117 YS-Zetta 55, Buttercup 117 YS-Zetta 55, and Bubbles 117 YS-Zetta 55 had worn those outfits as they saved the day. They had lived, fought, and died in them, just as their predecessors had. Now, those outfits were theirs.

As she and her sisters put the outfit on, Blossom stared silently at her reflection in the mirror. Today, she stepped out of childhood and into her new life as a Powerpuff Girl.

"Hey, Blossom. What's the matter?"

Buttercup stopped as she noticed her sister staring at her reflection in the mirror. At first, she wondered if something had went wrong with the morning routine but as she stared at her own image and Bubbles', she understood. She smiled silently to herself and walked up to her sister's side, putting a hand on her shoulder. The pink-clad girl glanced at her, blinking once. She gave her a gentle, confident smirk.

"Do you think they'd be proud?" asked Bubbles.

"I'm sure of it." the green-eyed girl said.

"To be fair, I don't feel ready. admitted the blue-eyed girl, nervously.

Buttercup's smirk became significantly less confident. "I don't feel ready either."

"I don't think this is really something that any level of preparation can make you ready for..." Blossom said before taking in a deep breath.

She straightened herself and then, stood tall. She put her fists on her waist, trying to give an image of confidence to her sisters. An image that became genuine as they also straightened and stood at her sides. For a moment, it felt surreal. Her own baby sisters, now in the traditional Powerpuff Girl outfit, looking like their older sisters had been.

It is time.

She took her position by the window. With a click, the windows slid out of the way, the skies of Townsville beckoning. The Powerpuff Girl felt the wind blow in her hair, her confidence cementing itself. She felt her heart pound with a mix of fear and apprehension but also excitement. Each of her sisters stood by their respective window, nodding at her.

The three jumped simultaneously, their powers activating, sending them rocketing into the endless blue leaving trails of pink, green, and blue light behind.

A new day has begun in the city of Townsville.

* * *

The three colored trails in the sky eventually curved back toward the ground, hitting the ground near a small series of large structures. A sign was indicated that this was the Pokey Oaks educational center. The three girls looked over the large school that was before them, knowing that they should probably move but finding their feet cemented. It wasn't a nefarious simian scheme that was causing this but rather a mix of hesitation and nervosity. While this was not their first day, it was the first day they came while wearing the traditional Powerpuff Girl uniform.

"So... what do we do, Blossom?" asked the green-clad girl.

"Miss Keane said she'd be waiting for us in her office once we feel better."

"You think we did anything wrong?" Bubbles voiced the same worry that she frankly shared.

"I don't think we did. Come on girls."

As they walked through the front door, they found themselves by the main hall of the school building. This was not the structure they'd spend the day in but directly to their left was the office they needed to visit until they got going. Walking in, a secretary quickly directed them to the second office behind the first one where a short, elderly woman with equally short white hair was typing on a portable computer.

Hearing the three enter, she took her gaze off the computer to look at the three. Seeing them like this caused her to smile. She motioned to the seats in front of her desk. "Please, take a seat."

After they did, Bubbles broke the silence. "Are we in trouble?"

"Girls, everything is fine. I just wanted to check on you."

This caused the three to calm down, though they retained their worried expressions. Seeing the three relaxing a bit, the director continued.

"You definitely look better than last time I saw you."

"Really?" Bubbles said.

Keane did not seem bothered by the explanation, continuing calmly. "Yes. It's hard, I know it is. I've been watching over generations of Powerpuff Girls and it's always a hard step. But now, you are real Powerpuff Girls." She smiled gently at them. "You'll grow to fit your uniforms, just as your older sisters did."

"Really? I thought Powerpuff Girls didn't grow up." said the blue-eyed girl innocently.

"That was just a manner of speaking." said Blossom before turning back to director Keane. "You really think we will? I'm not sure if we're ready for this responsibility."

"You will do fine. You are nice, well-behaved, perfect little Powerpuff Girls, like all those who came before you." Seeing the three finally fully relaxing and managing to smile back, Keane decided to move on to the real subject of this meeting.

Before long, the trio was out of the office and of the structure. A short walk, sped up thanks to their super speed, and they entered the school building that would be their new place of learning. Due to the proliferation of chemical X contamination and, of course, the rise of Powerpuff Girls, the age of individual students varied wildly. Some looked just as childlike as Blossom and her sisters while others were young adults, with students of all age ranges in-between.

Apparently, before the global contamination of the biosphere by chemical X, humans all learnt at the same speed, meaning that this school building would have only housed young adults. Sometimes, Bubbles wondered how that would have looked.

A pained groan, sounding like Bubbles' voice but slightly higher pitched, came from their right. On a bench, a redhead Bubbles model was groaning in pain and annoyance, holding her head, trembling a bit. Unlike the three, she was wearing some kind of vest with an exposed midriff and short jeans. A rather painful attempt at looking cool that really did not fit the Bubbles model's body frame in esthetics. The yellow color definitely did not help either.

The three blinked a few times at the ridiculous sight before starting to giggle softly.

"BS 700 will never learn, won't she?" commented Buttercup, crossing her arms.

"Let me guess, you stole Jerry's lunch. Again." Blossom was none too impressed nor feeling much in the way of sympathy toward her.

"Stealing the lunch of other people is really, really mean you know."

"Oh shut up Bubbles!" shot back the redhead Bubbles lookalike. She blinked a few times, her eyes focused and then, frowned deeply and angrily as she noticed their outfits. "Hey! What are YOU doing in those outfits? You're irregulars!"

"Who are you calling irregular?!" shot Buttercup, not feeling like enduring BS 700's attitude today.

Blossom decided to try and play the voice of reason, as much as she wanted to punch that redhead idiot's face in for insulting her and her sisters like that. "We've been appraised as official Powerpuff Girls. Why else would we be wearing the uniforms?"

"Because you stole them? I mean, why would YOU get to be appraised officially!?" BS 700 obviously was not willing to stop despite their expressions visibly shifting and kept going. "Beside, where's BM 117 and her sisters? Aren't they, like, your babysitters or something?"

While both Buttercup and Blossom managed to keep their cool, though glaring at the redhead Bubbles, their own Bubbles found herself staring at her feet sadly. BS 700 blinked a few more times before shrugging.

"Ooooh! So they're the ones who bought it the other day? Oh well, didn't like them anyway. Beside, you got to be a total wimp to die to a single rogue simian so no big loss, I guess."

"They were our older sisters, you jerk!" Bubbles was horrified, Buttercup looked ready to punch that meanie in the face. Blossom, meanwhile, found that her patience for BS 700's antics was wearing thin.

"If you insult the memory of our older sisters again, I'll suspend you by your undies to the school's flagpole."

Despite looking overly groggy, almost drunk, BS 700 managed to stand up and give them the most threatening, arrogant smirk she could manage. This only served to highlight how goofy she looked right now. Well, the girls would normally find her goofy. Right now, they found her to be a prime-cut jerk.

"You don't have the guts."

"That's because we're better than you,." said Blossom, as coldly as she could.

"I bet you got those outfits out of pity! I'm older, I'm stronger! I deserve to be an official Powerpuff Girl more than you!"

"Stronger? Not when you're drugged on antidote X!" shot back Buttercup.

"Am not!"

"Yes you are!"

"Am not!"

"Yes!"

"Am not!" BS 700 straightened herself, raising her voice. Then, her right eye twitched a few times and she collapsed back on the bench, moaning in pain and holding her head.

"Most parents pre-mix their kids' lunch with antidote X, you know, the daily dose that kids with chemical X contamination need? Maybe you wouldn't get drugged on antidote X so often if you were nicer and didn't bully them out of their food. I also think the grown-up humans would appraise you if you didn't do it, too." said Bubbles, balancing herself on her feet.

"After all, it would probably be embarrassing to all Powerpuff Girls if you stole something while on duty. Like, you know, stealing money. Which is what criminals do. Which are the people we're supposed to beat up, not join."

Blossom's words caused the redhead Bubbles model's eye to twitch again but this time, for a very different reason. "I'll make you eat those words!"

"Sorry but we got class. Can't afford to wait eight hours while your body eliminates the antidote X. And after that, we'll probably be out there saving the day. Or home watching TV." Bubbles swore that for a second, steam was coming out of BS 700's ears. A point that Buttercup seemed not to notice. Or to care about.

Either way, they left the rotten Bubbles model to pout in her corner before they said or did something they might all regret. While Buttercup had tried to sound tough, hearing that jerk insult the memory of their older sisters had caused her to sigh deeply. They'll have to fully get over it but still... knowing and actually overcoming are two very different things.

Fortunately, the group they studied with was a very pleasant one, outside of BS 700. It was a mixed class, with both humans and Powerpuff Girls in it. The way everyone had greeted them was surprisingly nice. The first half of the day went pretty much as expected, with studying whatever the teachers would tell to, getting a teacher change about halfway through as the subject changed. From time to time, a Powerpuff Girl's phone would start buzzing, she would answer it, and then she and often several more would leave as duty called.

The main hotline did not ring though. Not until after lunch, in the afternoon. The classic-styled phone with the characteristic esthetics begun to ring, the nose-lamp lighting up and interrupting the lecture.

Given that the wireless network had been restored a few generations ago, the ringing of the classic hotline had an extra function beyond indicating to the girls that duty called. As Blossom got off her chair and quickly ran to the hotline phone, leaving a pink trail behind, she knew that by answering the phone, she would perform her first part of her new duty's first mission. Namely, listen to the mayor and determine if the school needed to be evacuated.

"Powerpuff Girl Blossom. I'm receiving your call." she said.

The voice of miss Bellum answered. "The Gangreen Gang is rampaging downtown. Can you stop them?"

"We're on our way, mayor."

Alright. First solo mission. She and her sisters had went on many missions with their older sisters but this will be their first official mission as Powerpuff Girls. To say the truth, she wanted to sound tough but she was nervous as nervous could be.

"Let's go girls!"

Of course, the easy part was scrambling out of the school building and taking off. The hard part was that, well, having super speed and flight was one thing. Knowing where to go was the other. It quickly became apparent to the trio that they didn't have much in the way of an idea of where to go.

"So, hmmm... Blossom? Where are we going?"

"Girls? Time out!"

It was really embarrassing. For the three to take off heroically... and then have to suddenly stop midway through. Buttercup took the opportunity to facepalm at the absurdity of their situation.

"Don't tell me you don't know where we're going..."

"I was just following Blossom..." added Bubbles lamely.

Blossom giggled nervously, which only served to reveal the nervosity she was trying to hide. A point that caused her sisters' facade to also erode. To say the truth, they were kind of used to follow BM 117 and her sisters. So doing this solo? It didn't exactly look heroic and she guessed they looked kind of stupid, just floating in the sky for no seemingly good reason but well...

She took out her phone and turned it on. Buttercup glared impatiently while Bubbles suddenly became fascinated by nearby clouds, humming to herself. The pink-eyed Powerpuff Girl became increasingly embarrassed as they wasted precious time, the phone establishing connection and showing her a map of Townsville.

"Ha-ah! Alright, I know where to go!"

"Finally! What are we taking on anyway?" The green-eyed girl decided not to voice her worries about their situation. Given this stupid delay, will they arrive in time? What if something really powerful and scary is waiting for them? What would happen if Bubbles got too distracted or Blossom came up with a dumb plan?

"Gangreen Gang. They're rampaging downtown."

This caused Buttercup to give her hairbow-wearing sister a weird look, crossing her arms. "Seriously? You're shaking over the Gangreen Gang? For a second, I thought we might have been called for a good reason!"

"I dunno. The Gangreen Gang is a pretty big crime syndicate and they've done bad things to the girls they caught..." Bubbles said.

Buttercup rolled her eyes. "Pffft. Dying to the Gangreen Gang is like dying to a chihuahua.: Can happen but you kind of have to be a major lamer for that to happen. We're better than this!"

Instead of causing her sisters to cheer up, this caused Blossom to glare at her and Bubbles to actually look sad for a moment. Frankly, it made her very uncomfortable. "So... we're saving the day or what?"

Blossom looked at her phone again. She showed them the map, with the glowing dot. She also recovered her smile a bit. "Anyway, we got a situation at that spot! You all remember the strategy that our sisters taught us?"

"Kind of obvious if you ask me. So now that we know where the bad guys are, how about we do this?"

Blossom nodded to Buttercup and turned to Bubbles. She floated there, hands joined behind her back and then, slowly nodded. To be frank, she still felt nervous and though her green-eyed sister tried to act tough, she was also nervous. The whole trio felt nervous.

'I hope I don't screw this up. I hope I don't screw this up...' Blossom thought to herself as red-ish pink lightning crackled at her feet, joined by green and blue at the feet of her sisters. Then, the three rocketed toward the city, leaving colored trails as they continued their trip, the air rippling as a sonic boom was caused by their sudden acceleration.

They deccelerated as they came in fast, fast enough to take their targets by surprise but slowly enough that they wouldn't turn the asphalt into a crater as they slammed into the street like a trio of colored lightning bolts. Before them was five human figures, their skin the characteristic green color of Gangreen Gang members. They were not familiar members, a different cell than what they had fought alongside their older sisters before.

A lanky one had grabbed an old lady by the neck and was about to punch her in the face when he turned to face her. He was a tall teenager, probably close to adulthood if not a young adult, with a biker vest that was obviously modified to act as cheap armor. He wore a pair of goggles with goofy machinery integrated to it, probably minor cybernetics. Behind him, a pair of young girls, barely into their teens, one with only one eye, the other with a third eye on her forehead. Green short dresses that matched their skin, black hairbows with the symbol of the Gangreen Gang on them, the both of them holding a man upside down. Judging by the money on the floor, they had been shaking him to get his stuff.

In the back was a very large, top-heavy gang member, his arms almost the size of tree trunks, wearing a shirt that was obviously far too small for him and long, ragged pants. He kind of looked like a gorilla, if one asked Blossom. Near him, another member with enormous ears and massive buck teeth was wielding what seemed to be a vintage tommy gun, with a vintage hat that really didn't fit with his stripped shirt and black shorts.

"Not so fast!" Blossom called.

"Gangreen Gang!" Her sisters finished for her, standing at her sides, ready.

"Wait wait wait up! What's the hold-up, what's the big idea, what is this?" rapid-fired a very short one, emerging from around the corner. He had a ragged business suit that was probably meant to make him look like a classy gangster but given its sorry state and its owner being a small dwarf that was barely the size of the Powerpuff Girls, only made him look goofy. His right eye, which was inflated and all twitchy, probably did not help. Neither did the raspy, high-pitched voice. "Who's this?"

"Look like little girls to me." went the member with the huge teeth and the enormous ears. Now that she thought about it, he kind of look like a rat. "Hey girlies! If you give to us your lunch money, we'll let you go. Won't we?"

"Looks like Powerpuff Girls to me." went the gorilla-like member.

"Pffft, I can feel their fear from here. Powerpuff Girls ain't afraid of nothing and nobody! They only cry and scream when you kill'em! Freaks, all of them."

The various members chuckled evilly. Well, except the girl twins who giggled and the short one, who narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms.

"Silence!" he called. "I'm da boss so listen to me!"

He glared at the girls. Blossom took a deep breath, legs slightly spread as she tried to maintain a combat pose, focusing on the situation. By her side, Buttercup clenched her fists, suppressing the slight twitching in her body as adrenaline flowed, the call to fight getting a hold of her body. Bubbles had their back as well, not being intimidated by those bullies.

"If you know what's good for you, ya little girlies shall leave right now. No little candy rainbow freaks shall crank up on the Gangreen Gang's style! Now run along before we make examples out of ya!"

"Oh yeah? Just you try it, greenie freak!" Buttercup taunted.

This caused the shortie to chuckle, followed by all the other gang members. "Oh that's rich! Seriously, little girlies. Listen up, ya girlies. We're the Gangreen Gang!"

"And we're the Powerpuff Girls!" Bubbles shot back.

"Oh? Powerpuffs? Really?" The rat-faced member said, grinning and gripping his tommy gun. "Funny. Flight alone ain't enough. Besides, da boss told ya what we are. So git before we do something ya'll regret!"

They're the Gangreen Gang, not the Simian Empire. Just do as the older sisters taught and everything will be fine, Blossom thought to herself.

Colored lightning crackled around each of the Powerpuff Girls' bodies, their eyes glowing brightly in their respective color. Then, in a burst of speed, each one shot forward.

"GET'EM!" yelled shortie.

First order of business, get innocents out of the danger zone. Blossom tackled straight into the lanky one, with the biker vest. Flying at a significant speed, momentum allowed her to knock him straight on his behind. Before he could react, she made a sharp turn and snatched the old lady. She flew toward one of the buildings with open windows and let go of the old lady once inside the room. She didn't pay attention to the building or the content of the room. She just needed to get her out of the way.

Meanwhile, the rat face member directed his tommy gun toward Buttercup and opened fire. The green-clad Powerpuff Girl had shot straight toward him. Given he had a gun, he was likely the most dangerous member of the group and as such, a priority target. As fast as she was, the member's trigger finger was faster though. Powerpuff Girls think and react far, far faster than humans could. While dodging bullets was not something that a normal human could even begin to contemplate, Powerpuff Girls reacted, and moved sufficiently fast that they could do it.

Of course, it didn't change the fact that bullets fly at almost surreal speeds which was a problem in close quarters. And Buttercup was too focused on wanting to cave in that bad guy's face. Beside, this was a vintage kinetic weapon. The bullets failed to do any damage to her, her bulletproof dress not even remotely damaged by the primitive weapon's fire.

However, much to her dismay, one of the bullets smashed into her left eye. Given Powerpuff Girls could easily survive disintegrator beam impacts from simian weapons, a mere bullet from a tommy gun was completely harmless. It didn't stop it from stinging, though, causing her to flinch, to close her eye, and throwing off her focus.

So as she screeched to a halt in front of the gangster and brought her fist into a body blow to knock him down, her aim turned out to be completely off and she instead swung at his legs. Thankfully, her aim wasn't thrown off to the point that she missed altogether but instead of punching him in the gut to stun him, she hit his legs and caused him to fall backward. Unfortunately, this resulted in a volley of shots being fired all over the place.

Windows shattered, bullets smashed into brick walls, and generally gave everyone an unpleasant surprise, to say the least.

Bubbles had gone for rescuing the man being shaken by the strange twins. She closed the distance within a second, snatching him out of the twins' hands. The girls noticed this and both reached to swipe at her in clawing motions. Their hands hit only air as Bubbles sped past and up, dragging the man with her to a balcony of a nearby apartment building, where she dropped him off. He looked a bit sick but otherwise, he seemed fine.

"Stay here." she said, smiling.

The sudden burst of speed and the maneuvers of the girls clearly shocked the Gangreen Gang cell. The choice was clear. Either they got up and ran or they stood and fight. As the lanky one got up, he gritted his teeth as he saw the pink one by a window, the blue one by some balcony, and the green one having just knocked down one of his buddies.

Given that the black haired girlie had just knocked down his buddy, the gorilla-like member took opportunity of the fact that he was nearby to let out a battle cry and bring his fists down in a double punch. His attack was not particularly swift and his battle cry, mixed with Buttercup quickly shifting her attention away from the target she had just knocked down, meant that she saw him coming from a mile away.

The Powerpuff Girl easily sidestepped the clumsy strike and grabbed him by the wrists. She pulled hard, yanking the large gangster off his feet and then dragging him along as she decided to use him as a makeshift club. The rat face gangster was in the process of trying to get up when Buttercup smashed his face with the body of his buddy. She then let go, sending the unfortunate gangster slamming straight into a dumpster.

With both of her sisters out of reach, the gangsters yelled out as they ran toward her, obviously intent on fighting her. This also caused them to turn their backs upon Blossom and Bubbles, a mistake which cost them dearly.

Bubbles came swooping down, leaving a blue trail as she charged toward the group. She deccelerated just as she came within range, using her momentum to deliver an uppercut to the three-eyed gangster girl. The strength of the impact lifted her off the ground and actually sent her flying a few feet back. With a thud, she landed, unconscious.

Blossom, meanwhile, charged from behind, leaving a pink trail as she accelerated. As she closed the distance between herself and the lanky one, she slowed down, the trail vanishing. She turned her momentum into a mighty kick, literally kicking his ass and sending him head-first into the pavement. He rolled a few times from the inertia before coming to a stop, hitting a wall. He moaned lamely in pain.

The sudden attack surprised the group. Before they could react, Buttercup took advantage of the sudden shock to close the distance between herself and her targets. Shortie found himself kicked, effectively becoming a makeshift soccer ball that Buttercup kicked straight into the remaining girl's gut. She hunched over, her lone eye bulging before she fell over.

The three surveyed the area. Gorilla-like guy and rat face are down. Three-eyed twin is down. Lanky guy, cyclop girl, and shortie are getting up though.

Buttercup came for the one-eyed girl, as she was closest and the only one currently standing. She brought her fist upward, punching her straight into the chin before swinging her other arm, hitting her straight into the side. She then allowed her momentum to carry her, following it up with a kick to that same side that sent the girl rolling into the street. Cracking noises indicated she probably broke something in her attack frenzy.

Meanwhile, Blossom quickly got close to the lanky guy. She saw his eyes fill with anger behind his visor as he tried to punch her in the face. Gangreen Gang members, by virtue of being mutants, had faster reflexes and punching speed than humans by a noticeable margin. However, that margin was magnitudes lower than the reaction and movement speed of Powerpuff Girls.

So she effortlessly intercepted the punch, grabbing his hand and squeezing hard enough to cause pain. This caused the lanky guy's eyes to widen and to swing wide with his other arm, missing her altogether. Blossom then yanked hard and reached with her other hand, grabbing and lifting the Gangreen Gang member. With one swift motion, she swung him over her head and slammed him into the pavement. This ought to keep him down, now!

Meanwhile, the short leader of the cell was obviously shocked, not to mention angered, at seeing his members beaten up by little girls. He turned only to see Bubbles right in his face, smiling. His face deformed into an expression of rage as he tried to punch her. Bubbles nonchalantly dodged by simply tilting her head to the left, causing him to miss. That she was smiling, hands joined behind her back as if this was nothing, only served to anger him even more.

"Why are you so mean?" She tilted her head to the other side, dodging another punch. "I mean, you know by now." She sidestepped a body blow. "Do you really wanna get hurt?"

Shortie was punching as fast as he could, Bubbles dodging each and every punch without any difficulty whatsoever and aggravating him more and more.

"Okay!" She went happily, his actions being a clear answer.

She interrupted his flurry of attacks with a single punch of her own. The strength of the impact sent him rocketing toward the wall, making a nice slamming noise as he smashed against it. The impact clearly knocked him out, his left eye closed while the inflated right one fluttered like crazy.

The entire encounter had lasted less than a minute.

"Who wants some more?" called Buttercup, glancing about to see if any of the gangsters were getting up. None did, most of the group knocked out and the ones that weren't, unwilling to get up again, groaning in pain.

Blossom looked over the situation and then, each and every gangster done with, brought out her phone. She dialed the priority line. "Powerpuff Girl Blossom. Criminal elements neutralized."

A gruff voice answered her. "Acknowledged. We're dispatching men to arrest the perpetrators. Good job, Powerpuff Girls!"

"Understood. We'll keep watch until the officers arrive."

With this said, she ended the call and turned to her sisters. "Well, I guess that's a wrap for our first solo mission."

"That's it? That was barely a warm-up!" Buttercup just glared at the various members.

"Nobody got hurt and those meanies went down quickly. I'm glad it went well."

Buttercup crossed her arms, glaring at the blue-eyed Powerpuff Girl. "Duh. They're the Gangreen Gang. The Gangreen Gang always go down like chumps."

"Still, we did nicely on our first official solo mission. That was nice teamwork there, girls!" Blossom said, trying to change the subject.

"Pfft. Charge up, punch until they stop getting up. Not exactly a fancy strategy if you ask me."

This earned Buttercup a flat stare from her hairbow-wearing sister. Noticing said expression, she raised an eyebrow. After a few seconds, as Blossom continued to give her the stare, the green-clad Powerpuff Girl became annoyed. "What?"

"Just wanted to..." She sighed and decided to just drop it. Buttercup shrugged and also decided to drop it.

"So, hmmm... what do we do now?"

To be fair, not long after Bubbles asked this, the regular human police forces made it to the scene. With the Gangreen Gang cell neutralized, they could be arrested with no problems whatsoever. And soon enough, they were in the sky, flying away from the area. As they flew, Blossom replayed the entire fight in her mind. They did nicely, right? This wasn't too bad, right? They did manage to rescue the civilians and to knock out the Gangreen Gang members easily.

Still, as she replayed the scene, she realized they had done some mistakes, mistakes that their older sisters probably wouldn't have.

For example, they could have been sneakier about it, lured the Gangreen Gang into a sense of security, allowing Buttercup to get the drop on them and to tackle rat face without him firing. While his tommy gun had been harmless to her sister, it could have killed people and the bullets damaged walls and broke windows, causing collateral damage. Likewise, Buttercup was left alone and vulnerable for a bit too long. If she had kept going while flying after grabbing the old lady, snatching the other civilian on the way, it would have freed Bubbles as back-up for Buttercup.

There were tons of little and large mistakes now that she thought about it. Given this was the Gangreen Gang, she do admit that those mistakes didn't really matter outside of a tiny bit of collateral. But what if they run into simians, next time? Or into a kaiju? They still don't know what caused their sisters to fall.

Maybe it was her way of coping with it all. To just analyse it all so she didn't focus on how she felt about it. Or maybe she was deluding herself. To be fair, she had not given much thought to it until now. It took an extraordinary level of force or extremely specific circumstances for a Powerpuff Girl to be significantly damaged. Common kinetic firearms available for most of humanity are no threat to Powerpuff Girls whatsoever. Even if the bullets somehow manage to get through their bulletproof outfits, their skin could resist impacts magnitudes harsher than a portable firearm could deliver. It took simian disintegrator ray technology to actually damage Powerpuff Girls and you only got these from weapon smugglers.

Even then, now that she really thought about it...

Powerpuff Girls don't go down easily. Apparently, dead Powerpuff Girls are a gruesome sight. Due to the level of force required for critical damage to be inflicted, dozens of shots of disintegrator rays are needed. This meant that, by the time vital organs failed, Powerpuff Girls tended to be mangled in impressively gory ways.

That had not been the case with their older sisters. Outside of Buttercup 117's broken arm, it seemed that only a single disintegrator beam had been required to kill each of them. That made little sense; Powerpuff Girl skin was just too tough for that, unless the shot had been done at point blank range. And surely their older sisters would know better than to allow someone to get that close and blast them, right?

Blossom groaned internally. This was their first solo mission. It should ve been a great event. They should be celebrating, cheering, be happy about it. This was a milestone in their lives, and an important one; they were now true Powerpuff Girls. They had successfully finished a mission without any help from mentors or police forces and they d even managed to do it easily!

So why were they all so gloomy? Yeah, it was over quickly but then, they faced the Gangreen Gang. Did Buttercup seriously expect a battle right out of the legends surrounding the Utonium girls?

As they arrived home, landing in their bedroom, silence greeted them. It was as if they had expected cheering from their mentors, congratulations, something, anything. But there was nothing. And frankly, what did she expect?

"So, that was our first mission." Bubbles said before moving to the table and grabbing a bunch of blank pages. She sat down and begun to draw on them, leaving her sisters standing there.

"What are you doing?" Buttercup said, staring.

Her blue-eyed sister glanced back at her, smiling innocently. "Well, since we saved the day, I'm relaxing. I mean, that's how it goes. We save the day, we get what's left of the day off. So I'm going to draw some pretty things."

The blue-clad girl stopped for a moment. "They were new members. Why do you think they joined up?"

"Why are you asking me? I have no idea why bad guys become bad guys and frankly, I don't care. If they want to be mean, that's their choice." There was a pause. Buttercup wondering if she should say something else. She thought about what they had just done.

"I think you were pretty hardcore, Buttercup."

The green-clad Powerpuff Girl had not expected her sister to say that. Noticing her expression, Bubbles continued. "I admit I got a bit worried when that meanie with the mouse-like face begun firing all over the place. But then you slammed them good, even using bad guys to beat up more bad guys. The way you beat up that one-eyed girl was pretty intense."

"That wasn't anything, really. I mean, they were the Gangreen Gang. Not like beating them up is an achievement..." Buttercup said, scratching the back of her head, a bit embarrassed at the sudden praise.

"I still think you were cool." Bubbles looked to the drawing she had just begun making. "I sure wish I was more hardcore..."

"You were perfectly fine." Blossom chimed in, smiling at the blue-eyed girl. "We saved the day, after all!"

There was an uneasy time. It was so strange. Usually, after missions, their older sisters would take the time to talk to them, make sure everything had gone well, review how everything had went. Blossom wondered for a moment if she should sit her sisters through this.

"Well, if you don't mind, I think I'll go check on something." Blossom went, walking up to the room.

"Really? Alright. I'm going to check on something myself." Buttercup answered before turning to the blue-eyed Powerpuff Girl. "Well, I'll leave you to those drawings."

Bubbles nodded, returning to her drawings while Buttercup flew out of the window, leaving Blossom alone as she walked out of the room. The chateau just felt empty and silent to her, as she looked over the inside of the two stories house. Well, it wasn't exactly empty per see but without the zooming of her older sisters it just felt so. As she walked down the stairs, thoughts and emotions swirled inside her. She guessed, now that she had free time, that it was time to take a decision.

The door to the laboratory opened easily. Unlike every room in the chateau, this one had no windows so it was pitch black as she looked in. A flick of a switch and a massive, completely metallic laboratory greeted her. To say the truth, though she had not often entered this place before, this was not the first time she entered it. Still, to enter it now was... quite different, in feel.

She walked down the stairs leading to the various desks and computers. It was in this room that the Blossom Utonium, Buttercup Utonium, and Bubbles Utonium, the first Powerpuff Girls, were born. Of course, no Powerpuff Girls had been created in ages here. Assembly lines were just much more convenient and had much more suitable facilities both for security and helping new girls adjust to life. Still, it was surreal, when she really thought about it.

This lab once belonged to Professor Utonium himself. When he passed away, the lead Blossom of the chateau's Powerpuff Girl squad inherited it. Since then, the responsibility of watching it was passed down from Blossom to Blossom. Now, it was her turn.

The place was left in the same state as it had been last time BM 117 had left, except dusty. She could see the computer screen by the desk, still turned on and displaying the last project her older sister had worked on before that fateful mission. She climbed the stool that had been placed before the desk and looked at the display. An archive of files was before her eyes, in chronological order.

... she will fulfill her older sister's final request. She will continue her lifework. She will discover and learn the history of the Powerpuff Girls. She will uncover the forgotten lifetime of the Utonium.

She opened the first file...

* * *

 **[END OF PROLOGUE]**


	2. Day that was saved: Birth

**OFF:** Not much in the way of comments yet, I see... Well, that's okay. For the one who left that guest review, I'm glad you found it interesting and I hope you will find this chapter interesting as well!

Thus, here it is! The first chapter of the past era story arc. I hope that you will all find this to have been worth the wait.

* * *

 **The Day that was Saved**

 _Prologue ~ Birth_

* * *

Sugar. Spice. And everything nice. An old poem spoke of what little boys and little girls are made of and gave this recipe for girls. A nice, inoffensive poem. Of course, scientifically speaking, little girls, like any other creature, are made of flesh and bone. But then, poems will be poems. Beauty of the words needs not match the rigors of cold reality.

It is biting irony that this formula ended up being what could stabilize chemical X and neutralize the strange hivemind it enforced upon all those infused with it.

"Synchronization: 10%" read the screen as he poured the sugar.

They had tried so many substances. After access was lost to all of the old sources and he was reduced to scavenging, he discovered that those simple ingredients were suitable. How they managed to counter the effects of chemical X, he had no idea. It made little sense. The substances, when mixed individually in normal circumstances, did nothing to it. Yet, when mixed with chemical X in a specific manner, it worked. It was nothing short of magic.

"Synchronization at 37%" read the screen as he poured the spice.

Tests on humans and animals were a disaster. Even without the hivemind effect, chemical X infusions completely ruined the minds of the affected creatures. Mojo Jojo was a testament to this. The mutation had been gruesome, true, but comparatively tame compared to what chemical X usually did. His mind had seemed stable... for all of a few days before degeneration kicked in.

A result that was unfortunately consistent, as he transmitted the formula to all those he could, only for them to reveal that it failed them as it failed him.

"Synchronization at 66%" read the screen as he added everything nice.

Brain scans clearly indicated that chemical X did strange things to biological systems. Neural pathways were created, expanded, modified. Molecular structure changed. New organs appeared, and old ones vanished. Chemical X could even affect inanimate objects, though why it did that and under what circumstances was unknown. It seemed completely arbitrary and random.

The effects on inanimate matter were also odd. It effectively turned inanimate matter into life-forms, growing organs, turning the surface of the object into a skin mesh of sorts, and all other kinds of strange effects. Again, it was nothing short of magic. Of course, like all Chemical X-created life-forms, beings born this way were part of the hivemind and thus, insane.

"Synchronization completed" read the screen. He pulled the lever and the centrifuge activated. With the chemical X having fully merged with the formula, it was sucked in. Three infusions were created, sloshing around the glass spheres as they spun inside the massive machine. The injectors activated.

There would be no second chance. The bunker had run out of power and his supplies almost gone. The mutants were moving in and ammunition was thinly spread amongst even scarcer survivors.. If his theory was wrong, he would most likely die.

The black liquid flowed through the three sets of tubes. The three dolls were laid down upon a table, the injectors' needles piercing their plastic shells. He wished he could use robots, but he did not have the tools, the materials, or the time to craft one.

The dolls would have to do.

Professor Utonium stared at the mixed chemical X as it flowed through the tubes and finally, was injected into the dolls. He was suddenly very much aware that this may be the last few minutes of his life...

"Warning. Synchronization at 100%." What? What? Why did the synchronization in the mix suddenly climb? This was bad, this was very bad! He reached for the emergency abort system. He almost made it.

There was a blinding flash of light and suddenly, up was down, right was left, and the entire world spun. Then a second later, he slammed into the floor and a mix of exhaustion and dizziness made him close his eyes...

* * *

A pair of eyes fluttered open. With the blur of color came an urgent need for air. She opened her mouth, taking the first lungful of oxygen in her life. Beside her, she heard two others take their own first breaths.

As her vision began to clear, a strange creature stood before her, tall and of a pink-beige and white color. The creature stared at her with its two eyes, tilting its head.

Curiosity gripped her. What was that strange creature? Who was it? Where is this?

"Hi?" she called, calling in the first word that came to her. More thoughts swirled, very quickly. She felt her curiosity grow, slowly overcoming the fear she did not know had paralysed her. "What's your name?"

"Ah Professor, you may call me professor Utonium!" the creature answered, its mouth curving upward. Was it happy? Its tone was soft, slightly shaking. The disbelief slowly drained from its voice tone. "What about you?"

Who was she? In fact, she don't know who she was. Or _what_ she was. She looked at herself. Rounded hands greeted her, a tiny figure not unlike the taller one but pink-beige from head to toes instead of just the head. She looked back to the professor, blinking a few times.

"Oh, silly me! You don't have a name yet." The professor stood back, looking her and the others by her side over. "Well, because of your directness and opening right up to me, I believe I'll name you Blossom."

A giggle came from the being on her right. Its shivering seemed to have stopped and it now stood, as she did.

"Aren't you cute and bubbly! Well, in that case, you will be named... Bubbles!"

To her left, the third figure was looking at the professor with an open mouth, staring at him intently, the way its mouth curved looking not unlike the professor's. Its shivering had also vanished as it seemed to be waiting for something.

"And you will be... Buttercup! Since that also begins with a B."

The figure's grin reversed. A sigh and it crossed its arms, now looking at them. The professor remained gentle. He adjusted the strange things that surrounded them, putting strange metal things on their skin that tickled. He then approached another weird machine, seemingly broken, and smacked it a few times with his fist. It sparkled to life and displayed strange pictures to him. This seemed to please him.

"All readings normal. No trace of desynchronization. No signs of mutation in progress... you truly are three perfect little girls..."

He smiled softly, looking at the three. There was hope now.

* * *

The professor looked over his notes. The girls had manifested power the very day they were born, helping him out after he had tripped in his excitement over their successful birth. They had obvious super strength, far more than organics infused with as much chemical X as them should ve had, alongside with super speed and what was likely greatly enhanced intellect. They were merely a few days old and yet, they already acted like girls at least four to five years old.

The speed at which they learnt was nothing short of spectacular or maybe disturbing. They absorbed knowledge like sponges, memorizing what had to be months of learning in minutes. He was no expert but it struck him as sudden how quickly the girls learnt how to read and count. The fact that they were born knowing english was already quite impressive. Hopefully, it wasn't a sign that they would degenerate.

To say that they had brightened his days was an understatement. And despite his worries of degeneration, the way their bodies worked made him think more and more, as days passed, that they would not do so.

Okay, so basing his conclusions off a mere few days was technically bad science but given how crunched for time he was and how hope was in such short supplies up until recently? Who would blame him for actually hoping that he might live to see tomorrow?

Nonetheless, they breathed, they ate, they slept, they played, they drew, they did everything a little girl might do. Well, little girls didn t fly but that was a given since chemical X was involved. Still, they were alive.

And thus came the time for the test by fire. A few days of life might not be much and he didn't have the equipment to really analyze their bodies more -not without hurting them- but he had all the data that he was going to get for now. It was time to retake the countryside, for humanity.

He considered telling the girls about the real reason they were created for... but no, not yet. The time was not right for this.

Given the incredible speed at which the girls learned, he hoped that those who followed would learn just as quickly...

* * *

 _In the year 2008, twenty years after the Impact and twelve years after humanity lost the war for the surface, a man known as Professor Utonium made a breakthrough. Humanity was driven underground after all of their weapons failed to slow down the onslaught of chemical X-born mutants. Scientists created many weapons using chemical X to try and counter the mutants, including chemical weapons such as antidote X and supersoldier programs._

 _Most of those programs ended in failure, with the few that did not producing insufficient results. Antidote X for example, though viable, was not an effective way to combat mutants, requiring large quantities to affect the more powerful mutants and only disabling their abilities for a maximum of eight hours._

 _The supersoldier programs were catastrophic failures. Every single life-form infused with chemical X was consumed by madness or worse yet, became integrated into the hivemind that seemed to govern every X-mutant. Humans or animals, it did not matter. Attempts to counter the effects of chemical X with other ingredients removed the hivemind effect but not madness. All those programs succeeded with was in producing more foes for humanity._

 _Having lost the fight for the surface, humanity survived by hiding in any shelters they could find. Subway networks, abandoned bunkers, hardened structures, basements of buildings in the countryside, anything humanity could find. An attempt at producing new infrastructure underground was made but without easy access to the sun, humanity was forced to rely largely on scavenging. This, mixed with constant mutant raids and further damage upon humanity s already depleted assets by kaiju rampages, caused humanity to continue its decline._

 _The trend finally came to an end as the first Powerpuff Girls were created in the year 2008._

 _Though the established safe zone was small at first, a small expedition group was created to colonize the safe zone and prepare the way for humanity moving back to the surface. Since everyone was quite skeptical especially given what had happened with the old supersoldier programs, I volunteered alongside many of the underground s most respected figures to take part in this expedition._

 _One of the key members of the expedition were Miss Keane, one of our best all-range teachers. She moved out to a relatively intact kindergarten school building in the suburbs, intending to prove that the safe zone was truly what it was advertised to be by showing that children could be raised safely on the surface._

 _Likewise, I moved out to act as a liaison between those who remained underground and the expedition._

 _This move, though very bold, was necessary. Over ten years of life underground had seen us use up most of the easily recoverable resources in the city ruins and with all the time that passed, all perishable foodstuffs were now inedible. To ensure the survival of our species, moving to the surface was an inevitable move._

 _It was in this context that I first met Blossom Utonium, Bubbles Utonium, and Buttercup Utonium. It was also then that my path would cross with the infamous Mojo Jojo for the first time._

 _-from Sara Bellum s self-biography_

* * *

"Wake up girls! It's time for school!"

Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup opened their eyes to see the professor standing by the door, smiling at them. Buttercup, in particular, was tempted to yawn since it was quite early but then, curiosity trumped her other feelings at the moment. Speaking of curiosity...

"What's school?" Blossom asked.

"You'll see. I'll show you." He had already brought them their dresses.

The morning routine went swiftly and, actually, a bit faster than the last few times. The girls were little bundles of energy, moving all the time, seemingly in awe of every single thing around them. For them, this was quite normal; their young minds were constantly absorbing every new bit of info around them. Still, despite physically resembling little girls, if one excluded their mutations, they easily ate as much as adults did. The professor theorized it might have to do with the greater rate at which their bodies worked.

It took a few days for him to teach them to slow down a bit, both for his sake and the sake of the house. After discovering peanut butter sandwiches, they had covered most of the kitchen in the stuff while making their own.

But apart from the sheer speed at which they learnt and developed, they were frankly refreshingly normal. They d shown none of the disturbing aspects that past supersoldier programs had given. Even Mojo Jojo had given -in retrospect- extremely obvious signs of sociopathy a few days after his infusion. By contrast, the three girls seemed perfectly healthy in both body and mind.

Today would be an important part of this project.

The girls were obviously stable and he had set up the scene. They didn t know it yet but, for the past two nights while they d slept, he had created two more sets of girls. The mutants that had been patrolling the surface near his laboratory and the immediate suburbian area were quickly removed.

Of course, cleaning up the ruins of the city that had once existed was, for now, a pipe dream. But this would come later.

Now he need to know if his creations could live in harmony with humanity and the best test subjects for this were his girls. Besides, given their personality and development, it was right for them to be that way. No one's life should be spent only fighting. If this wentwell... he would introduce the others to the world and enroll them in school as well.

Before long, they were outside. Since this was a special occasion, he decided to lead them to their destination by car. He had plenty of fuel on hand; he had conserved a rather large quantity for various purposes in the last few years, making sure it wouldn t lose its potency. As he drove, the girls looked through the windows.

"It's so pretty..." Bubbles smiled widely as she looked at the grass, the skies, and the clouds.

"You said the surface was dangerous. What changed that we can go to school, wherever that may be?" Buttercup asked.

The professor remained silent. Hopefully, he would be able to answer this question if everything goes well. For now, he gave them a gentle smile.

The school building was beautiful. While the X-mutants had indeed rampaged all over the surface for years, it took a bit of time for structures to fall into disrepair and for the walls to crumble. So when the call had came that the surface was safe again, it hadn't taken long for the school to be re-opened. The interior had to be cleaned up and the outside could use new paint but unlike many of the buildings beyond the suburbs, it had been left alone by the monsters as a whole.

Even as he led his girls -effectively his daughters- to school, he couldn't help but smile as he heard the voices of children coming from inside. He had been a child himself when chemical X had come to the world but he had been just old enough to hold memories of how the world used to be. To see a fragment of that time returning made him smile.

It just made him happy to know that after years of fear and despair, humanity might finally be able to live again instead of just surviving...

A pale, young adult woman greeted them as they entered the school building. Already, the many children that would attend the teacher's class were chatting and playing with each other in the classroom. For a moment, the professor found himself looking at a scene that was akin to the pre-Impact world.

It also occurred to him that Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup had obvious differences from normal humans. Yet, as the teacher lowered herself and smiled to the three girls, there was no trace of fear or disgust.

"This is school. I'm your teacher, miss Keane, and this is where kids go to learn!"

The three looked to the other children, smiling. Worry begun to well into his heart. On one hand, this was necessary and he wanted this to happen. On another hand, he knew that there was just so many ways it could go wrong.

Speaking of what could go wrong...

"Hey, you wanna play?" One of the human children had noticed his girls and had walked up to them. His girls looked at their new teacher. She nodded approvingly, causing them to smile very widely. Before long, they ran to join the other children while miss Keane stood up.

"Do you think they'll be okay, because I'm new at this parenting thing so I came here to come and meet you and see them off on their first day because they're really special. I mean, special. And I just wanted to make sure they'll be okay. So, what do you think? Do you think they'll be... okay?"

His nervousness had to be painfully obvious because the teacher smiled widely at him. "They'll be just fine, professor. See you at noon!"

* * *

The day had started out so nicely. It was absurd how quickly a day could go sour.

The professor returned as scheduled only to find the classroom in disarray. For a moment, a nameless fear gripped him and he suspected that, somehow, his little girls might ve been the source of the devastation only for miss Keane to dismiss his fears.

That's what happens when you put twenty or more little kids in one room, she said. And before long, she led him to the courtyard to look over the playing children.

"Your girls were perfect; perfect, normal well-behaved little girls."

"Nothing out of the ordinary?" He had to make sure.

"No, like what?" For a moment, she seemed quite confused but as she followed his gaze, the teacher guessed why he was asking this question. "You don't have to be insecure about their mutations."

Seeing his expression shift, she guessed it was indeed this. "I've been a teacher in the underground before your project made it safe for us to move back to the surface and I've had to deal with children with chemical X contamination before. There's absolutely no problem with them having big eyes and differently shaped hands. They aren't the only ones with mutations after all."

She motioned to the kids playing together. "See? No one made a big deal about it. Everything's fine."

It was relieving and kind of liberating, in a way. Every day that passed had the girls acting normal, outside of their superpowers. None of the freaky mutations, none of the freak-outs he had expected. They were stable, mentally and physically. This made him happier than he would dare to admit casually. Not just because it meant that they wouldn't go on a rampage akin to how Mojo Jojo did but also because there might be hope that they could have a life of their own.

With everything being fine, he considered leaving. But then, seeing his girls being so happy like this? He decided to stay for a while longer.

Apparently, the children had decided to start playing tag. He stood there as his girls decided to participate.

... huh?

Buttercup sped up a bit as she ran after her sisters. In turn, Blossom and Bubbles sped up as well. This caused the green-eyed girl to speed up further. Which in turn caused her sisters to... oh. Oh no.

Before long, colored lightning shot out of their bodies and they became blurs, creating a shockwave as they sped right past the sound barrier that knocked nearby kids down and shattered the school building's windows. As Buttercup hit Bubbles, tagging her, he saw the impact knock her all the way into and through the school's wall. His eyes slowly widened with horror as he understood what was happening. His horror grew further as he noticed everyone else's expression as well.

Bubbles smashed her way out of the school and landed back into the courtyard hard enough to create a crater where she landed, sending bits of asphalt everywhere. Her sisters had dodged quickly to the side, tearing through the fence. Then the three took off, tearing their way straight through nearby houses, knocking down trees and shattering every window with the supersonic boom of their passing.

Everyone just stood in abject horror, paralysed by shock. It took all of his mental strength to get a hold of himself and to excuse himself before anyone got funny ideas...

As he ran back to his car as fast as he could, he reached for his phone and dialed back home. As he heard the click showing that his call had been answered, he spoke urgently.

"Belle, Bulle, Rebelle. I need you to deploy right now."

* * *

The laughter of small girls was usually something that brought joy to those who heard it. Right now, in Townsville, it meant death and destruction. Multicolored blurs tore their way through the streets, shattering every single window and knocking down everyone with the shockwaves of their movements. The sheer inertia and momentum created horrific gusts of wind that sent cars flying and tore stop signs from the walkways, turning them into dangerous projectiles. Pieces of broken pavement flew like bullets, further damaging the already ruined walls of nearby structures.

Screams of terror and horror were heard as people ran for the relative safety of the brick walls.

The professor had been insistent that they catch Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup before they dealt irreparable damage to the city. Decades of lack of maintenance and constant mutant attacks had already damaged much of it and if the girls were left to rampage unchecked, it would make it impossible to restore the ruins.

Belle would not have been able to believe it if she hadn't seen it with her own two eyes. Her older sisters, despite being smaller than almost all of the mutants they had destroyed in the last few days, were doing as much damage as kaijus. It was almost unbelievable. It was clear that they were needed here.

"Bulle, go for Bubbles. Rebelle, catch Buttercup. I'm going for Blossom."

"Who named you the leader? I say-"

"City being destroyed! Move!" She didn't have the time to argue with Rebelle right now.

"Belle, where do we go? I don't-" Bulle was in the middle of asking when a question when she gasped and flew straight to the side. Her sisters followed her, narrowly avoiding the massive trail of debris that came tumbling through the street, including a couple of cars.

Peeking out from outside a broken window, Bulle cringed, scratching the back of her head. "Guess that answers my question..."

"Follow the debris trail!", Belle pointed before shooting off, followed by her sisters.

Explosions, the streets shaking as massive amounts of destruction was inflicted upon the city, cars and bodies being hurled through the air by the shockwaves and winds... It was a fine mess. Following behind the trio was professor Utonium and to say that he was horrified was an understatement. What had started as a little game of tag had become something just as destructive as any kaiju attack. Worse yet, he realized that none of his girls understood the concept of collateral damage at all.

Belle, Bulle, and Rebelle were doing just as much damage as they pursued their older sisters.

He cringed as Bulle slammed violently into a gigantic metallic globe at the top of one of the old skyscrapers, using it to readjust her trajectory and catch up with Bubbles, an act which tore the globe off its support and sent it tumbling into the streets. Screams of terror echoed as people fled the house-sized metallic bowling ball that rolled its way down the streets.

Worse yet, he cringed as he saw that the girls were heading straight for the old city hall. Sara Bellum had moved into it to supervise the surface side expedition and if the girls destroyed it...

He could clearly see Belle, Bulle, and Rebelle catching up to their older sisters. But while he desperately hoped for them to get to them before impact, it was easy for him to do a quick calculation and realize that they were going to hit the hall before the others caught up. He really, really, really hoped this could be prevented. But he knew it wouldn't be the case.

He found himself hoping for a miracle, any kind of miracle.

Six colored trails smashed into the city hall. The impact was brutal, tearing down an entire wall and sending debris that dented and damaged the walls of every nearby structure, finishing off whatever few windows remained. Constant giggling and laughter came from the crater where the six trails had ended. The Professor's car came to a halt nearby and he wasted no time in getting out, looking over the rim of the crater.

Belle, Bulle, and Rebelle were restraining their counterparts, pinning them down.

"Hey, that girl looks just like you, Bubbles!" said Blossom, in-between giggling fits.

"Yeah! And that one looks just like me!" Buttercup, like her sisters, seemed just so amused by the entire situation.

The Professor gritted his teeth, looking over the scene. As he did so, he looked through the hole that his girls had just created in the wall... and noticed a feminine figure clad entirely in red, carrying a notepad. One that looked perfectly relaxed and yet, that he knew wasn't so internally.

Sara Bellum, the mayor's secretary.

"Professor Utonium I presume."

And at this moment, everything, absolutely everything came crashing down. The laughter of his daughters was a small, almost inaudible background sound effect as the secretary s words cut through like a knife. Despite how dangerous Earth was nowadays, despite the mutants and kaijus, Sara Bellum suddenly became the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.

"Y-yes?" He couldn t keep his dread out of his voice, despite his best efforts.

"If you would be so kind, please wait here. We would like to ask you some questions. And I expect you to be extremely comprehensive in your answers."

As much as he wanted to kid himself and say that he wondered what she was talking about, the desolation that was behind him spoke for itself. Even as he followed her directions and entered the structure, making his way toward the room that acted as her office, he realized what it all meant.

He had sunk all of his hope into the girls. Given how short he was on hope, he had deliberately thrown away his reason and chosen to go all-in with this project because, simply put, he didn t have a choice. But now, reality asserted itself in the most brutal way possible.

As he sat down in Sara Bellum s office, the secretary taking her seat and turning on the monitor in her room, the sense of deja-vu became too much for him to ignore. He, unfortunately, knew how this will end.

Professor! The voice of the mayor, not to mention his image on the monitor, seemed none too pleased. So you re the one who unleashed another of those horrible monsters! All I was trying to do was enjoy a pickle when suddenly everything started shaking and boulders were smashing up my office! Do you realize how difficult it is to grow pickles nowadays? I waited a long time for the new farm to be completed and the harvest was poor! And now you unleash another of your freaks, smashing up the place and getting in the way of-

Let it go, mayor. Let it go. Sara sounded soothing but he knew from experience that this was only because her own complaints were going to be even harsher. Are we correct in assuming that you are the creator of the large eyed mutants who just damaged a significant portion of the north surface ruins?

He weakly nodded, saying yes. Noticing the mayor fuming on the monitor, he cleared his throat and answered clearly. It did nothing to calm him.

Oh just great! I thought we were over this, mister Utonium! I know I m not the brightest bulb around but even I would know better than to try and create more mutants after what happened with Mojo Jojo!

A barb that made him flinch. The new formula was designed to fully counter the effects of chemical X and the new process-

The mayor lifted a hand. Utonium fell silent and then, after a short moment, the mayor explained.

Look, take this pickle, for example. The mayor took out a pickle and shown it on-screen, causing Sara Bellum to sigh.

Sir, this a serious situation.

Yes, exactly! This is a serious pickle! the mayor said, not missing a beat. See, pickles are good. Hot chocolate gives food a sweet taste. But if I plunge this pickle, or any pickle, into hot chocolate, it will go bad. Doesn t matter what the brand the hot chocolate is, how good it is, or how good the pickle is too, it will go bad. Do you understand me, mister Utonium?

The Professor nodded silently. The mayor carried on.

Look, you re never going to create a stable superpowered being by plunging it into chemical X. OId people in lab coats, young people in lab coats, and even the snot-nosed kid down the fifth metro line all told me that it can t be done. Hell, this whole mess started because things got doused with that nasty stuff. It didn t work then, and it s not gonna work now. One would think that someone as smart as you would get that. I mean, even I can get that!

He just didn t know what to say at this point. He just

We are very disappointed, Professor. said Sara. When you said that you found a way to secure the surface, that wasn t what we had in mind. As such, we will be forced to take drastic measures.

His heart skipped a beat, his entire body freezing for a second. B-but they are little children. They didn t know! They-

Mojo Jojo was just a chimp. Sara Bellum did not need to change her tone for her words to cut him harshly enough to stop him mid-sentence. You assured us that he was stable, that your formula would allow him to retain his sanity, that it was just his chimp instincts acting up whenever he caused damage. You told us, repeatedly, that your creation would not turn out like every other creature ever to be infused with chemical X. That you had made a great breakthrough.

But everyone knew how he had turned out. Jojo, his lab monkey, was the subject of the prototype version of the formula that created the girls, years ago. He quickly degenerated, not merely growing violent but outright ruthless. Before long, what had been a harmless lab monkey turned into Mojo Jojo, current ruler of the Simian Empire and humanity s greatest enemy.

His perfect little girls did not degenerate like this. They were perfect little girls, right? They were happy, innocent, friendly, so nice! All they did was an innocent game of tag!... right? They played, drew, went to school, did everything like little girls should!

He thought of the other two trios, the ones that had cleaned up the streets. For a second, he realized that despite having killed mutants by the dozen to secure the surface within days of their awakening, he didn t had to explain to them what death was. He hadn t had to comfort them regarding the violence they experienced.

The little girls he created were sane right? They perfect little girls, right? Surely, that little game of tag they d just played had to be innocent, right? They they just

They re just kids. They were just playing

Professor Utonium. Sara s voice remained the same as usual. First of all, calm down. We are gathering reports on the damage caused by the playing of your creations. You will disclose to us the full research papers on your project and stop production of any further subjects until we have reviewed it. As for your little girls

He was almost unnaturally still, waiting for what she would say, dreading it.

We will wait until we have all of the relevant data before making a decision. In the meantime, you are to administer a dose of antidote X to all of your creations sufficient to nullify their powers. This is not negotiable. I hope you understand the terms.

I do.

Slowly, he forced his limbs to move. He could read the words on the wall. The project was now on probation. And if they decided that they were unstable, they might they might

How was he going to explain this to the girls?! How could he explain it to them? They re just little girls, his little girls. The effects it might have on their psyche

How was he going to do this?!

* * *

"I can't believe I actually have sisters! Well, even more sisters!" said Bubbles, smiling widely as she barged into the house, followed closely by her sisters.

"That is so cool!" Buttercup was certainly pleased, circling around the room alongside her sisters.

Six trails of colored light left by six girls, three pairs that looked identical to one another right down to the voice. Though the outfit was slightly different for each pair if only because Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup had wrecked their outfits through their little game of tag.

"Yeah, you never told us you made us more sisters!" called Blossom as the three dragged their counterparts into their frenzied flight.

However, something seemed wrong with the Professor. He was sighing deeply as he climbed the stairs, his steps slower and less enthusiastic than usual. Then, with surprising reflexes, he reached out and intercepted Bubbles mid-flight. She squeaked briefly before giggling as he dragged her into a hug.

"Gotcha little bunny!" He said, quite a bit less happily than his choice of words might indicate. Noticing Bubbles' counterpart having stopped before him, he nodded at her. "Get Belle and Rebelle. Also, fetch Twerk, Swag, and Bling. I need all of you to hear this."

As Bulle intercepted her sisters, the Professor reached out with his free hand and with perfect timing, snatched Buttercup. Dragging his two daughters into a hug, the green-eyed girl called out enthusiastically at Blossom.

"Help! I got caught! Blossom, watch out!" The glee in her voice was all too obvious.

"You're the sole survivor!" Bubbles said, playing up the drama in a way that was frankly adorable.

Smiling widely, the pink-eyed girl flew to the first floor and bounced off the couch a few times as she landed. "No way Professor, you can't catch me!"

"Oh yes I can because the game's over and it's your bedtime. Now come up here so we can catch you."

Noticing the Professor's tone having audibly deflated sufficiently that she could not deny it anymore, Blossom looked at her feet for a moment, the sheer adrenaline warring with her reason. Then, after a short while, she smiled to herself and floated back up. For a moment, she stared at the Professor, her father returning her stare. Then, she threw herself at him, her father hugging all three. The three little girls burst into a fit of giggling as he carried them toward their bedroom.

"Well now, three little girls had a very busy day today, didn't they?"

"Yeah! It was fun!" went Bubbles enthusiastically. "We met lots of kids!"

"And we learnt things!" added Blossom.

"Played tag!" further added Buttercup.

"And found out we have even more sisters!" finished Blossom.

The happiness of his daughters was just too much. It tore through his bad mood and brought him a smile. A ray of sunshine in the wake of what had happened. "Well, I'm glad you had so much fun because tomorrow will be a busy day too. So let's get your nighties on and into bed. Once your sisters arrive, there is something we should all talk about."

Before long, his excited daughters were ready for bed. Before long, he had all nine girls present and accounted for. The second trio was nearly identical to the little girls in the bed, outside of the fact that they still wore their dresses. The third trio had slightly larger, even rounded heads with slightly larger eyes. The one that looked similar to Blossom, Twerk, had an even larger hairbow, while the one that looked closest to Buttercup, Bling, had unruly hair, with a visible cowlick. The third girl, Swag, who looked most similar to Bubbles, had higher pigtails, the hair decorations more readily visible.

"Everybody's accounted for?"

Nods and cheers from every assembled girl. He now had everyone's attention. It suddenly became very difficult for him to maintain his smile. He could clearly see Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup's expressions as they learnt that they had yet more sisters. He could also see the cheerful expression of his other daughters. All of them so glad, so happy. In a way, that only made what he needed to announce all the more painful. How could he possibly explain it?

"So what's up daddy-oh?" Buttercup having just called him by an affectionate nickname only made it harder. He couldn't tell them... but maybe he could find a way to indirectly explain himself.

"Everyone, listen. It's about your super powers. I'm not sure how to say this..."

He froze. How could he possibly explain to his girls that they had brought destruction to so many people with their game earlier? That everyone might now hate them? That they may end up associated with one of humanity's worst enemies and his greatest mistake? Or even worse, that they may be mistakes themselves?

The more he thought about it, the more he knew that a happy ending was likely not possible anymore. Not after they caused so much collateral damage. He tried to think of a way to make this better. Maybe have the girls help rebuilding? Or record them removing mutant infestations through some of the ruins? However, all those solutions relied on everyone trusting the girls to be stable enough to use their powers without causing collateral damage or, worse yet, going berserk.

As fast as they learnt, they were still little girls. How could he possibly break upon them that everybody might hate them? That the mayor and his secretary may demand soon that he terminate the project and, by extension, kill them?

He couldn't. He just couldn't. It would break them, completely shatter their psyche. Maybe... maybe if he just had them lay low, have them not use their powers, prove to everyone that they could act normal and that they weren t degenerating...

They... weren t degenerating, right? They were... sane, right?

But then, it's only been a week or so at most. Far too little time; everything had been happening far too quickly for him to be sure...

He couldn't tell them. But he had to say something.

"... but I don't think you should use them in public anymore."

"Why?" asked nine voices.

"Well, your powers are very special and unique and although we have a lot of fun doing unique things around the house, out there, people don't really understand how special you girls are just yet. And unfortunately, people often get scared or angry when they don't understand something special or unique."

Largely because every 'special' or 'unique' creature that had popped up in the last twenty years had spent their time killing them and all that they loved, with the total human population now numbering to below a billion worldwide in the most optimistic estimates. But if he told them that, it would break their hearts, and make them think they're freaks. He didn't want them to spend what could possibly be the last few days of their lives thinking that.

... they were just kids. Less than a week old for six of the nine. This was so wrong...

"That's silly!" said Blossom, suddenly smiling in an amused manner.

"Well, I think so too." Actually, he understood perfectly why everyone else was freaking out. But given it was likely everyone would start hating them, if they even thought they d lost the support of their father figure, if not even he would show them love... he didn't want to think about the effect it would have on their minds.

"But nonetheless, try to take it easy with the powers tomorrow. Just give everyone a little time to understand your specialness, okay?"

It was obvious that they didn't quite understand that this was all damage control, that they didn't grasp just how serious the situation was. Still, he saw the expressions of the girls turn back into smiles and they all nodded, going "Okay!" at him. He glanced to his other daughters, who also nodded and approved, despite not understanding either why he was telling them to cut down on their use of powers.

He desperately hoped that spending time being normal girls would indeed drive home to everyone that they weren't monsters to be feared, that they were different from Mojo Jojo. Because they were different from Mojo Jojo, weren t they? He wasn t lying to himself. He didn't just get attached to a failure that he should just flush before it truly got dangerous, right?

"But people here are nice, everything will be fine!" Blossom said, smiling widely, something that all the assembled girls agreed upon.

He just wished it would be the case. The collateral damage caused by that little game had been... quite severe. By how many years did the girls set back humanity's hopes of restoring the ruins above into something that could be lived in? How many people were injured or, worse yet, killed by the collapsed buildings and flying debris? It wasn't a matter of being nice; after what the girls had done, a lot of people would carry grudges against them that would last until the grave.

There was nothing they could do, and nothing that he could do, either. Other than hope, against all odds, that humanity would forgive them and recognize that they aren't monsters, that they can live in harmony with human beings. He just hoped that after the tag disaster, people would give them a chance in the first place; chances are, he would soon receive the order to terminate the project...

* * *

High above the Earth was an old satellite, heavily damaged and with its orbit in an advanced stage of decay. Still, while the machine had seen better days, this relic of the pre-Impact days was still functional and in particular, its advanced camera was still recording.

While the old human communication networks on the ground had been destroyed years ago, it did not mean that no one retained the technology necessary to interact with the remnants that remained in space.

A furry figure, clad in blue and wearing an incredibly long vertical helmet, stared at his console's screen. Looking at the video feed, a large fanged smile formed itself as his glowing red eyes stared at the images, a cybernetic monocle on the left side of his face feeding details directly into his oversized brain.

Several primates, each wearing a similar helmet that hid, and protected, the gargantuan brains that spilled out of their skulls turned to look at the central figure. A slightly asian, deep voice came from the monocle-wearing chimp as he addressed the other primates.

"So he has survived. And produced new ones. This may be an opportunity that I will be able to seize and take advantage of. Prepare for me a suitable vehicle, not noticeable, unarmed, not of a style that would look out of place among the other hairless' choices of transportation."

Yes, he had noticed an opportunity and had decided to investigate this new event himself. If the Professor had done what he thought he had done, then he would finally be able to come up with a course of action that would fulfill the goal that he has been trying to achieve...

* * *

 **[END OF PROLOGUE]**


End file.
